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Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel (Spanish: Misión de San Gabriel Arcángel) is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish missions in California. The mission was named after the Archangel Gabriel, and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles."
The mission was designed by Antonio Cruzado, who gave the building its capped buttresses and the tall narrow windows, which are unique among the missions of the California chain. It was completed in 1805. A large stone cross stands in the center of the Campo Santo (cemetery), first consecrated in 1778 and then again on January 29, 1939. It serves as the final resting place for some 6,000 neophytes.
According to Spanish legend, the founding expedition was confronted by a large group of native Tongva peoples whose intention was to drive the strangers away. One of the priests laid a painting of Our Lady of Sorrows on the ground for all to see, whereupon the natives, designated by the settlers as the Gabrieleños, immediately made peace with the missionaries, as they were so moved by the painting's beauty. Today, the 300-year-old image hangs in front of and slightly to the left of the old high altar and reredos in the Mission's sanctuary. Resistance to the mission by the Tongva was recorded and how much the neophytes embraced Catholicism remains a subject of debate among scholars.
In August 1771, the Portolà expedition, which consisted of "ten Spanish soldiers and two Franciscan priests, encountered armed Tongva Indians on the banks of the Santa Ana River." One month later, Mission San Gabriel was founded on September 8, 1771, by Fray Ángel Fernández de la Somera and Fray Pedro Benito Cambón. The planned site for the Mission was along the banks of the Río de los Temblores (the River of the Earthquakes—the Santa Ana River). The priests chose an alternate site on a fertile plain located directly alongside the Río Hondo in the Whittier Narrows. The site of the Misión Vieja (or "Old Mission") is located near the intersection of San Gabriel Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue.
The mission was built and run using what has been described as slave labor from nearby Tongva villages, such as Yaanga and was built on the site of the village of Toviscanga. When the nearby Pueblo de los Ángeles was built in 1781, the mission competed with the emerging pueblo for control of Indigenous labor.
The expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza visited the mission in January and February 1776, having previous been there in 1774. In 1776, a flash flood destroyed much of the crops and ruined the original Mission complex, which was subsequently relocated five miles closer to the mountains in present-day San Gabriel (the Tongva settlement of Toviscanga or 'Iisanchanga). The Tongva village of Shevaanga was also located "close to the second location of Mission San Gabriel" after the original site was abandoned due to the flooding.
On December 8, 1812, the Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary, a series of massive earthquakes shook Southern California. The 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake caused the three-bell campanario adjacent to the chapel's east façade, to collapse. A larger, six-bell structure was subsequently constructed at the far end of the Capilla. While no pictorial record exists to document what the original structure looked like, architectural historian Rexford Newcomb deduced the design and published a depiction in his 1916 work The Franciscan Mission Architecture of Alta (upper) California.
Over 25,000 baptisms were conducted at San Gabriel between 1771 and 1834, making it the most prolific in the chain of missions. Tongva people from nearby settlements like Akuranga village were affected by the practices of Franciscan missionaries, who attempted to "eradicate what they perceived as ills within Tongva society" through "religious indoctrination, labor, restructuring of gender structures, and violence," which took place at and around the Mission. A missionary during this period reported that three out of four children died at Mission San Gabriel before reaching the age of 2. Nearly 6,000 Tongva lie buried in the grounds of the San Gabriel Mission.
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Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel (Spanish: Misión de San Gabriel Arcángel) is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish missions in California. The mission was named after the Archangel Gabriel, and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles."
The mission was designed by Antonio Cruzado, who gave the building its capped buttresses and the tall narrow windows, which are unique among the missions of the California chain. It was completed in 1805. A large stone cross stands in the center of the Campo Santo (cemetery), first consecrated in 1778 and then again on January 29, 1939. It serves as the final resting place for some 6,000 neophytes.
According to Spanish legend, the founding expedition was confronted by a large group of native Tongva peoples whose intention was to drive the strangers away. One of the priests laid a painting of Our Lady of Sorrows on the ground for all to see, whereupon the natives, designated by the settlers as the Gabrieleños, immediately made peace with the missionaries, as they were so moved by the painting's beauty. Today, the 300-year-old image hangs in front of and slightly to the left of the old high altar and reredos in the Mission's sanctuary. Resistance to the mission by the Tongva was recorded and how much the neophytes embraced Catholicism remains a subject of debate among scholars.
In August 1771, the Portolà expedition, which consisted of "ten Spanish soldiers and two Franciscan priests, encountered armed Tongva Indians on the banks of the Santa Ana River." One month later, Mission San Gabriel was founded on September 8, 1771, by Fray Ángel Fernández de la Somera and Fray Pedro Benito Cambón. The planned site for the Mission was along the banks of the Río de los Temblores (the River of the Earthquakes—the Santa Ana River). The priests chose an alternate site on a fertile plain located directly alongside the Río Hondo in the Whittier Narrows. The site of the Misión Vieja (or "Old Mission") is located near the intersection of San Gabriel Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue.
The mission was built and run using what has been described as slave labor from nearby Tongva villages, such as Yaanga and was built on the site of the village of Toviscanga. When the nearby Pueblo de los Ángeles was built in 1781, the mission competed with the emerging pueblo for control of Indigenous labor.
The expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza visited the mission in January and February 1776, having previous been there in 1774. In 1776, a flash flood destroyed much of the crops and ruined the original Mission complex, which was subsequently relocated five miles closer to the mountains in present-day San Gabriel (the Tongva settlement of Toviscanga or 'Iisanchanga). The Tongva village of Shevaanga was also located "close to the second location of Mission San Gabriel" after the original site was abandoned due to the flooding.
On December 8, 1812, the Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary, a series of massive earthquakes shook Southern California. The 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake caused the three-bell campanario adjacent to the chapel's east façade, to collapse. A larger, six-bell structure was subsequently constructed at the far end of the Capilla. While no pictorial record exists to document what the original structure looked like, architectural historian Rexford Newcomb deduced the design and published a depiction in his 1916 work The Franciscan Mission Architecture of Alta (upper) California.
Over 25,000 baptisms were conducted at San Gabriel between 1771 and 1834, making it the most prolific in the chain of missions. Tongva people from nearby settlements like Akuranga village were affected by the practices of Franciscan missionaries, who attempted to "eradicate what they perceived as ills within Tongva society" through "religious indoctrination, labor, restructuring of gender structures, and violence," which took place at and around the Mission. A missionary during this period reported that three out of four children died at Mission San Gabriel before reaching the age of 2. Nearly 6,000 Tongva lie buried in the grounds of the San Gabriel Mission.